College Second Basemen: A Brief History

Breaking news! College second basemen selected in the first 20 rounds of the MLB Draft need to show exceptional ability in one of three offensive categories – power, plate discipline, or speed. I know, I was shocked to find out that big league clubs value those things as well. A quick study of early round college second basemen shows that 78% of college 2B taken in the top 20 rounds over the past three years showed standout skills in one of the three aforementioned areas.

Caveats for this quick and dirty study include a) small sample (only three years worth of data), b) unscientific standards (power = minimum .550 SLG; plate discipline = more walks than strikeouts; speed = 20+ stolen bases), and c) 2010 statistics were park and scheduled adjusted (thanks, College Splits!), but 2007-2009 statistics were left as is.

Tomorrow we’ll look at players in the 2010 draft class that fit the criteria, as well as a top 20…or 25…or 30…list of top college 2B prospects. To just give an idea of what information can potentially be teased out with these quick studies, three “big” name players that don’t currently (as of 4/26/10) surpass any of the three statistical benchmarks include Alabama JR 2B Ross Wilson, California JR 2B Brian Guinn and Central Florida JR 2B Derek Luciano. That’s not to say that the positive scouting reports on each will be ignored, but it’s something to at least consider going forward. On the flip side, there are three or four 2010 draft-eligible college second basemen with the chance to hit the over on all three statistical benchmarks. Identities revealed tomorrow.

Until then, check out the complete list of college second basemen taken in the top twenty rounds over the past three drafts. Slash stats are obvious (AVG/OBP/SLG), but the other two sets of numbers are BB/K and SB/SBA. Players that did not hit any of the three benchmarks are in bold. Players that hit on all three benchmarks denoted with the triple star (***) badge of honor.

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[…] From last year: College second basemen selected in the first 20 rounds of the MLB Draft need to show exceptional ability in one of three offensive categories – power, plate discipline, or speed. I know, I was shocked to find out that big league clubs value those things as well. A quick study of early round college second basemen shows that 78% of college 2B taken in the top 20 rounds over the past three years showed standout skills in one of the three aforementioned areas. […]